Re: Stud8 Qualifier?
As for when they started using the Eight-or-better qualifier, I don't know. Super/System discusses the game without the qualifier, and Ray's book discusses the game with, so it was somewhere between 1978 and 1988, I think.
The purpose of the qualifier is to give the live ones a chance. In the no-qualifier game, big pairs are completely unplayable, but the live ones would play them all the time. They had absolutely no chance. In stud/8, high pairs have some scoop potential when the low hands bust out, so they become a lot more playable. Most players still lose money with them, but not so quickly and surely as when there is no low qualifier.
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